“People put it up on this pedestal when it’s really the same way that everybody else goes through their stuff, you know?” he tells Interview magazine in its February issue. “It’s not really any different.”

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The only difference, he says, is the media attention.

“Even though everything is so publicized and everybody is looking at it, it’s normal for us,” he says. “I think the infatuation with the whole thing is that watching us go through things makes other people feel normal.”

His ex-wife, Spears, 26, didn’t attend the hearing. After arriving at the courthouse, she told a crush of photographers, “I’m scared. I want to get in the car,” and drove away, ending up at a church and a restaurant. Another hearing is set for Feb. 19.